Central City Opera, whose production of “Show Boat” is shown here, is one of 14 Colorado arts nonprofits getting $2.63 million from the NEA this week. (Provided by Central City Opera)

The National Endowment for the Arts announced grants totaling $2.63 million for Colorado arts nonprofits this week as part of the Washington, D.C.-based organization’s second round of 2014 funding.

Colorado’s share, which amounted to about 4 percent of the overall $74 million the NEA doled out, will go mostly to the state’s Creative Industries Division (formerly the Colorado Council on the Arts) and the Western States Arts Federation, both of which distribute money to smaller organizations. They received $689,200 and $1.65 million, respectively.

Other nonprofits that received grants ranging from $50,000 to $10,000 include Boulder Community Media, Art Students League of Denver, Central City Opera and Curious Theatre Company.

Check out the full list of winners, amounts and a state-by-state breakdown below.

Sixteen Colorado organizations have been recommended to receive between $10,000 and $55,000 each to support programs as diverse as music education, community theater, literature, film festivals and rural artist-in-residence programs.

The $291,000 for Colorado arts organizations is part of the larger $25.8 million in grants for 1,083 nonprofits and individuals, according to NEA senior deputy chairman Joan Shigekawa. The grants are broken down into three categories: Art Works, Challenge America, and Creative Writing Fellowships.

There is not a lot of money involved – the latest round amounts to $1.53 million total across the country – but the awards aim to use the arts as a community builder, a way of helping cities and towns understand their own identities and join together through culture.

In grant speak, they support “two major outcomes: public engagement with diverse and excellent art and livability, or the strengthening of communities through the arts.” But what that really means is direct support for festivals, exhibits, murals and other public projects that give less-visible segments of the population a piece of the cultural pie.

The program has a small focus and is geared toward organizations with annual budgets of less than $50,000. All the grants are an even $10,000.

The National Endowment for the Arts announced grants this week for 11 Colorado organizations totaling $250,000.

The money will go to support a variety of endeavors, including Opera Colorado’s production of “The Scarlet Letter” and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance’s new work, based on the story of the Buddhist goddess “Tara.”

Boulder Community Media, Boulder
Amount: $40,000
For: To support a documentary and website presenting the traditional music and dance of the Volga German communities of western Nebraska, southeastern Wyoming, and northeastern Colorado.

If you've never read 'The Grapes of Wrath,' the Garfield County library system wants to make it as easy as possible for you to do it.

In the scheme of things, the $111,400 that the National Endowment for the Arts delivered to Colorado arts organizations this week is a drop in the bucket — especially when you consider gargantuan gifts like the $2 million that CU-Boulder alum Roe Green donated this week to create a theater chair at the school.

The Foundation, located in Rifle, is one of 78 organizations nationwide to receive grants ranging from $2,500 to $20,000. The cash will go toward providing copies of John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Grapes of Wrath” to Garfield County library system users. Check out the full list of Big Read winners (and their books) here.

The bigger prizes went to a trio of Front Range and plains communities as part of the NEA’s Our Town grant program.

The grants — 928 in all totalling $77.17 million nationally — will go toward everything from arts education and dance programs to supporting literature, opera and visual arts. Specifically, they covered the NEA’s grant categories of Art Works, Arts in Media and Partnerships.

“The arts should be a part of everyday life,” NEA chairman Rocco Landesman said in a press release. “Whether it’s seeing a performance, visiting a gallery, participating in an art class, or simply taking a walk around a neighborhood enhanced by public art, these grants are ensuring that across the nation, the public is able to experience how art works.”

Click below for a full list of Colorado organizations and the amounts they were awarded.

Michelle Ellsworth received $50,000 from United States Artists' Fellows program this week for her innovative approach to dance and multimedia.

A pair of grant announcements this week have added up to nearly $100,000 in much-needed cash for Colorado artists and nonprofits.

On Monday, the Los Angeles-based arts advocacy organization United States Artists released its latest round of USA Fellowship grants, including Boulder dancer Michelle Ellsworth. The organization’s sixth round of grants — 50 in all totaling $2.5 million — included $50,000 for Ellsworth, who has performed at and received commissions from companies in Colorado, New York, Washington, Texas and Florida.

As a USA Knight Fellow she was recognized for her innovative approach to dance and multimedia art, having created websites, films and cartoons that cast the art form in a new light. Ellsworth is a professor and co-director at CU-Boulder’s theater and dance program.

In addition, National Endowment for the Arts chairman Rocco Landesman on Tuesday announced the recipients of $1.62 million in Challenge America grants, including four Colorado organizations receiving $10,000 each.

Denver's Su Teatro, which produced Daniel Valdez's original musical narrative 'Ollin' (above), was one of nine Colorado entities recommended for funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Denver Post file photo.

Colorado artists and arts nonprofits scored a small slice of funding in the latest round of grant recommendations from the National Endowment for the Arts, garnering $322,500 of the $26.68 million announced last week — or slightly more than 1 percent.

Nineteen Colorado entities, including a pair of poets, various museums and more than a half-dozen artist programs, were among the 1,057 artists and groups recommended for funding by NEA chairman Rocco Landesman. The money is awaiting final approval, but if the projects made it this far, they will likely go the distance.

“At this point they just need to be processed through our grants office,” said Liz Stark, public affairs specialist at the NEA in Washington, D.C. “They’ve gone through our panel, been reviewed by the National Council on the Arts and recommended by the chairman, so when we put these grants on our website we’re confident that they’re strong projects.”

PBS introduced a beta version of its new arts website today, covering architecture, dance, film, theater, music, visual arts and more. PBS President Paula Kerger said the expanded arts content is as “part of broader plan to make more arts and cultural offerings accessible to millions of Americans.”

The site’s initial offerings include four concurrent virtual exhibitions. Among them: “Ruin and Revival,” works from the “Storm Cycle” collection by New Orleans-based artist Thomas Mann.

Full episodes and extra footage from some of PBS’ arts series will end up on the site. For many Americans, the network suggests, online connections to arts may be as close as they get to live performances.

PBS notes the site’s launch “coincides with the recently released National Endowment for the Arts report, Audience 2.0: How Technology Influences Arts Participation, which indicates that people who engage with the arts on-air or online are three times more likely to attend a “live” event than non-media participants.”

Cleo Parker Robinson Dance is one of 20 Colorado arts nonprofits getting a slice of the NEA's $97 million in second wave grants. (Photo by David Andrews)

Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, the Denver Brass, the Denver Art Museum and Frequent Flyers Productions are among 20 Colorado arts organizations receiving a slice of the National Endowment for the Arts’ second wave of grants for 2010, the NEA announced today.

The NEA will distribute more than $97 million through 1,323 grants to nonprofit arts organizations nationwide, including 20 in Colorado. The Western States Arts Federation, which redistributes NEA money, received the biggest chunk of Colorado’s share with $1,917,500. The Colorado Council on the Arts came in second with $826,400.

Five Points dance company Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, one of the few in the country preserving and touring the works of African-American artists, received a much-needed $100,000 to support the restaging and touring of choreographer Katherine Dunham’s “Rites de Passage” and “Southland” — the latter of which has never been seen in America.